Monday, March 26, 2007

NIGERIA WINS U-17 CHAMPIONSHIPSNigeria beat hosts Togo by a lone goal in extra time to win the 7th U-17 championships, in the final match played at Kegue Stadium on Sunday. Striker Akinsola Kabiru grabbed the match winner in the 106th minute to give the Nigerians their second triumph in the biennial event after 2001.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

It is easy to pinpoint the exact moment when I realized West Africa was ready to shed its backpacker haven image and embrace a new kind of traveler. I was sitting on a beach at the mouth of the Saloum River, a smoky grilled oyster in one hand, glistening in its charred shell, a glass of muscadet in the other.

I was in the Sine Saloum Delta, a glorious melding of river, earth and sea just north of Senegal's border with the Gambia, where a handful of hotels have sprung up in the last five years, drawing a new set of travelers.

West Africa has for decades been the province of backpackers — the place to go for life-altering journeys filled with $2-a-night hotels, interminable, jouncing journeys in the back of bush taxis on rutted back roads and gorp for lunch and mystery meat stew for dinner. I made many such journeys myself as a high school student living in Ghana in the early 1990s. But the big-money tourists went east or south for the big game safaris and the luxury resorts on the Indian Ocean and the Cape.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Friday, March 16, 2007

SHAYAMOYA, South Africa - Oprah Winfrey opened her second school for poor South African youth Friday, an innovative, environmentally friendly institution she hopes will be a model for public education.

The Seven Fountains Primary School was funded by Oprah's Angel Network, a public charity that supports organizations and projects focused on education and literacy.

"The Seven Fountains School is an example of what schools in South Africa can become," Winfrey said at the school's formal dedication outside the remote town of Kokstad in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

Dressed casually in a cream top and white pants, the talk-show host danced and sang with teachers and children who lauded her with cries of "Long live Oprah, long live!"

Los Angeles, CA (March 13, 2007)—Actor Isaiah Washington has donated $25,000 to the computer reconstruction project of Bunce Island, an 18th century slave-trading castle in the Republic of Sierra Leone. Bunce Island—once the largest British slave castle on the Rice Coast of West Africa—exported tens of thousands of African captives to North America, particularly the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia.

According to Washington, who learned of his own ancestral connection to Sierra Leone through DNA testing, “The stories of innumerable Sierra Leoneans that were forced into slavery have yet to be extensively told. I believe this project will begin to shed some much needed light on the region, both past and present.” Washington’s donation to the Bunce Island project—made through his foundation, The Gondobay Manga Foundation, and channeled through the Friends of Sierra Leone organization—is part of the actor’s work to bolster the efforts of the Sierra Leone government to secure international assistance for the preservation of the castle.

Describing the importance of the Bunce Island computer reconstruction, one of the project’s founders, James Madison University (JMU) professor of history, Joseph Opala stated that “Unlike the Jewish holocaust and other terrible crimes of the modern era, the Atlantic slave trade took place before the advent of photography, and thus we can only imagine its horrors. Our computer animation project will allow us to go beyond the imagination, and actually see how the Atlantic slave trade was carried out.”

At the helm of the Bunce Island computer reconstruction project are JMU professors Joseph Opala and Gary Chatelain. Part of a study that Opala began in the 1970s, the Bunce Island project is based on 18th century documents and drawings, as well as Opala and other experts’ archeological studies. Chatelain, a specialist in art and art history, is using his expertise in interior design and computer modeling to fill the rooms of the virtual castle with period furniture and slave trade cargo. The finalized product will present an unprecedented view of the historic castle as it appeared in the year 1805. Eventually, Opala and Chatelain hope to create an educational CD that will allow students to virtually explore the slave castle and see what Africans endured during their forced migration 250 years ago.

In May 2007, Washington plans to host a group of African American celebrities, whose DNA tests also point to Sierra Leone, to the Bunce Island slave castle.

More about Isaiah Washington:The award-winning actor presently stars in the hit ABC series, Grey’s Anatomy. Aside from appearing in over 30 films including Spike Lee’s Crooklyn (1994), Warren Beatty’s Bulworth (1998) and Clint Eastwood’s True Crime (1999), Washington has also appeared on many popular TV series, including Ally McBeal, Law and Order, and Touched By An Angel.

Following his trip to Sierra Leone in 2006, Washington created a non-profit organization, The Gondobay Manga Foundation; Gondobay Manga being the name that the Mende people of Ngalu Bagbwe Chiefdom bestowed on Washington when he was inducted as a tribal chief. The organization is aimed at improving the lives of ordinary Sierra Leoneans.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

After Sade got her 7th email about our annual Spring Jump Off party, within 2 weeks, we decided it's time we get this preparation started. The party will also launch our spring issue. So we're currently brainstorming for ideas on a not so ordinary party.

A simple cocktail party? or big-ass jump off? or a soulful concert event? You be the judge! email events@ariztos.com with your ideas. If we pick your idea, apart from being our guest of honor for the party, you'll get a valuable gift.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Actress Angelina Jolie has just completed a two day visit to a refugee camp in eastern Chad. The refugee camp houses refugees from the Darfur region in the Sudan. Darfur has been plagued by war for years, lending to the countless amount of refugees. As a goodwill ambassador, Jolie lent her support to the troubled nation in hopes of raising awareness about the war, and its toll on these innocent refugees.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Stevens, owner of Cole Stevens Salon & Day Spa in Greenbelt, Md., then learned about a hairdresser in Sierra Leone who worked all day standing on one leg. The other had been amputated.

"I told the stylists, 'We complain about little things, but she's trying to make her money, and she has one less limb than we do,' " Stevens says. "It stayed on my heart."

War helped drive up the country's unemployment. Men who had been the sole breadwinners for their families had been left unemployable by war injuries. Part of the answer, Stevens thought, was right around her.

The Chairman's Award, chosen by NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond, is bestowed in recognition of special achievement and distinguished public service. "Bono has been an inspiration to many people around the world through his music and humanitarian efforts," said Bond. "We are delighted to honor him with this award in recognition of the difference he has made and to acknowledge his ongoing campaigning to actively engage Americans from all walks of life in the fight against extreme poverty and the global AIDS pandemic."

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- It's been a year since the first Red T-shirts hit Gap shelves in London, and a parade of celebrity-splashed events has followed: Steven Spielberg smiling down from billboards in San Francisco; Christy Turlington striking a yoga pose in a New Yorker ad; Bono cruising Chicago's Michigan Avenue with Oprah Winfrey, eagerly snapping up Red products; Chris Rock appearing in Motorola TV spots ("Use Red, nobody's dead"); and the Red room at the Grammy Awards. So you'd expect the money raised to be, well, big, right? Maybe $50 million, or even $100 million. Try again: The tally raised worldwide is $18 million.

By any measure, the buzz has been extraordinary and the collective marketing outlay by Gap, Apple and Motorola has been enormous, with some estimates as high as $100 million. Gap alone spent $7.8 million of its $58 million outlay on Red during last year's fourth quarter, according to Nielsen Media Research's Nielsen Adviews.

And people walk miles to read her issues and stories that touch their own lives.

Nearly a decade ago, at 14, Isshag started publishing a handwritten community newsletter about local events, arts and religion. Once a month she'd paste decorated pages to a large piece of wood and hang it from a tree outside her family's home for passersby to read.

The petite reporter is an increasingly common sight around town, her notebook and pen in hand as she interviews local people for her articles. Last week she roamed El Fasher asking people how they felt about the International Criminal Court's recent accusations against two war-crimes suspects in Darfur.

Friday, March 02, 2007

HelonHabila, born in Nigeria and who currently works at a George Mason University, just wrote his second book titled "Measuring Time."

Habila's wrote his first novel at night, writing in longhand and then coaxing his friends to help him type it, print it, and publish a round of 1,000 copies. An excerpt from "Waiting for an Angel" won the 2001 Caine Prize, the $15,000 award, and the recognition that came with it.

Habila is unassuming in person: A slight man with serious eyes, he laughs easily. The first time we meet, he is dressed in a close-­fitting sweater, slacks, and wingtips. But his gentle, mannered demeanor occasionally gives way to the anger that underlies much of his writing. He gets worked up when the discussion turns to the way Western reporters cover Africa: “[I]f they were to write something positive, they would find a white man there who is doing something in Africa, helping Africans, and they write a big profile of that person bringing help to Africans. You know?,” he says. “That Bono nonsense.”